In Jerry Spinelli's Stargirl, what choice does Archie want Leo to make? How does he try to help him make this important decision?

In Jerry Spinelli's Stargirl, Archie is an old professor who helps Leo make sense of his relationship with Stargirl. In chapter 7, when Leo and Kevin first ask him about the new girl at school, Archie provides positive and open-minded information about Stargirl. The boys think he speaks in riddles, but like a good teacher, Archie wants them to make their own choices based on factual information and kind-heartedness. For example, when Kevin suggests that Stargirl is an alien, Archie replies by suggesting that she is more human that most as in the following passages:

"On the contrary, she is one of us. Most decidedly. She is us more than we are us. She is, I think, who we really are" (32).

"You'll know her more by your questions than by her answers. Keep looking at her long enough. One day you might see someone you know" (35).

Archie does not want the boys to stay away from Stargirl. He wants them to analyze the questions they have about her in order to get to know and understand her better. Later, when Leo falls in love with Stargirl, he is faced with making another choice about her. The whole school turns on Stargirl after she cheers for another school's team; as a result, they shun her and Leo.

Leo goes to Archie for help because he doesn't want to be treated like a leper by his classmates, but he loves Stargirl. To help Leo come to a decision about how to handle this situation, Archie suggests they consult his cactus, Senor Saguaro. A poignant question to help Leo make his decision in chapter 17 is revealed as follows:

"As Archie spoke, he looked up toward the elf owl hole. Now he turned back to me and whispered, 'I asked for questions' . . . 'Questions?' I whispered. 'What about answers?'

"But he was turning from me, tilting his head toward the great cactus, his finger on his lips--'Shh'--his eyes closed. . . 'The esteemed Senor says there is only one question. . . 'Whose affection do you value more, hers or the others'?" (104).

Archie teaches Leo to make his own choices through inquiry. As a professor, he knows that asking questions is a good way to discover answers. Therefore, Archie helps Leo to realize that the answer to his dilemma--choosing between friends at school and his relationship with Stargirl--is found in the answer that comes from his heart. Archie probably hopes that Leo will choose Stargirl over the conformist attitude of his schoolmates because that would mean that Leo does not care what others think about whom he loves. However, Leo decides conformity with the majority rather than to stand as an individual for the girl he loves. For Leo, she is too different from what he wants in his life to choose her over his schoolmates.

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...

A man has a garden measuring 84 meters by 56 meters. He divides it into the minimum number of square plots. What is the length of the square plots?

We wish to divide this man's garden into the minimum number of square plots possible. A square has all four sides with the same length.Our garden is a rectangle, so the answer is clearly not 1 square plot. If we choose the wrong length for our squares, we may end up with missing holes or we may not be able to fit our squares inside the garden. So we have 84 meters in one direction and 56 meters in the other direction. When we start dividing the garden in square plots, we are "filling" those lengths in their respective directions. At each direction, there must be an integer number of squares (otherwise, we get holes or we leave the garden), so that all the square plots fill up the garden nicely. Thus, our job here is to find the greatest common divisor of 84 and 56. For this, we prime factor both of them: `56 = 2*2*2*7` `84 = 2*2*3*7` We can see that the prime factors and multiplicities in common are `2*2*7 = 28` . This is the desired length of the square plots. If you wi...

nouns - what do you call the person who passes the trophies to the prize giver/presenter?

The person who gives out the trophies to the winners are called award presenters. So what do u call the person who passes the trophies to the presenter? Thanks!

Notes

Search This Blog